The promise…

To us (part 5)

“Since it’s by faith that we are justified, let us grasp the fact that we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have confidently entered into this new relationship of grace, and here we take our stand, in happy certainty of the glorious things he has for us in the future,“ Romans 5:1-2 (Phillips).

This is the new life that has opened up to us because we’re justified and our relationship with God has been restored. But don’t just believe it, Paul is saying, “confidently enter it” too. We have now “gained access” (as the NIV phrases it in verse 2) into this new relationship with God. The doors have been flung open, so in we can go.  

And we can enter this new relationship with confidence, because it doesn’t depend on anything we do or don’t do. Paul calls it “the gift of God” (verses 15 and 16). Even our belief was given to us by God. So God made absolutely sure our relationship being restored with him is all his doing. And his reason for making sure it’s all his doing was (and is) to “demonstrate his love for us,” verse 8. And what better way of demonstrating his love for us than “Christ dying for us while we were yet sinners” (verse 8)? 

Peter says the same thing in 1 Peter 3:18 – “For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.” And it’s on that statement that “we take our stand,” as Phillips phrased it in Romans 5:2. It’s because of the death of his Son that we can state with absolute confidence that God loves us, and our relationship with him has been totally restored. 

It’s this same confidence that Paul talks about in Ephesians 3:11, that God’s “eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord” was (and is), verse 12, to enable us to “approach him with freedom and confidence.” 

And with that same stand in mind the author of Hebrews writes in Hebrews 4:16 – “Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with fullest confidence, that we may receive mercy for our failures and grace to help us in our hour of need.” Because we can do that now, and in total confidence, because of this new relationship that God has gifted us with…(more on this tomorrow)